Dining room with a difference

Source : Business Times - 1 Nov 2008

AS if the designer fittings in all of its 206 apartments weren’t enough for its residents, Orchard Scotts also places a dining room at its guests’ disposal that can be booked for private events.

It’s a facility that’s not to be confused with the ubiquitous function room found in lesser condominiums - indeed, you get the idea that this is quite a different breed when you step inside and clap eyes on the cordon bleu coffee machine built into the sleek wooden cabinets and the 52-inch LCD TV embedded in a wall of granite.

Says Chng Kiong Huat, director for development and projects at Far East Organization, which owns the property: ‘Rather than simply putting in a list of ‘required facilities’ by rote, we took pains to look at the composition of targeted buyers, and to create amenities that would suit them and help them live life to the fullest.’ The inclusion of the 16-seater dining room, he adds, is aimed at giving residents the opportunity of holding ‘that wonderful private party in their own home’.

To whip up their meal, residents can choose to hire their own chef or pick from the list of tried-and-tested names that Orchard:Scotts’ concierge has on speed dial. And in addition to the full range of kitchen equipment, cutlery and crockery, the room is fitted with an ice-making machine as well as an in-house cellar that allows guests’ wine and cigars to be properly stored in a temperature-controlled environment.

With bookings nearly every day since the condominium was launched a year ago, the facility seems to be spot-on when it comes to what residents want.

Says one resident and lawyer Christina Lim, who has booked the Orchard Scotts dining room twice: ‘Here, it’s private, comfortable and everything that I want is available in-house - there’s even a small space where everyone can sit down and have drinks before or after the meal.

‘Plus it’s close to home and, being in Orchard, it’s convenient for my guests, too.’

At the most recent party she had, Ms Lim had everything ‘efficiently arranged by the condo’s staff’. ‘I just liaised with the concierge about the food - Fullerton came highly recommended, so I went with that - and the number of guests,’ she says. ‘I didn’t even consider going to a restaurant.’